National George Lucas Day

Few people realise it, but it's actually National George Lucas Day here in Luxembourg! Why do the Luxembourgish celebrate National George Lucas Day? Well, it's a little known fact that the creator of Star Wars, George Lucas is actually one tenth Luxembourgish.

Throughout his career, George has made heart felt references to his Luxembourgish heritage:

Many of the 'Alien Languages' spoken in the Star Wars movies are, in fact, variations of Luxembourgish: Luxembourgish backwards, Luxembourgish with the syllables rearranged, Luxembourgish with particular phonetics replaced with phonetics that make up the names of famous Luxembourgish beers (Boff, Mou, Mon, Batt, Alt, Kirch) and in the case of Jabba The Hut, he is just speaking Luxembourgish.

The famous Star Wars canteen scene is actually based on a real bar that can be found in Differdange. And the canteen music is the Luxembourgish National Anthem played backwards and faster.

There are other more subtle Luxembourgish social references to be found in the films of George Lucas: The uniforms of the Imperial Offices on the Death Star are not dissimilar to the hats and boots worn by the Luxembourgish Police. And the line 'use the force' is actually taken from the Luxembourgish driving course, where instead of the 'Mirror, Signal, Maneuver' approach to turning of roads common in many nations, Luxembourgish drivers are encouraged to 'use the force', shut their eyes, break and turn without giving any thought to indicating.

'Oodles of Star Wars related silliness on the Internet, so much to choose from:

First of all a classic, Star Wars in 30secs done by bunnies:

http://www.angryalien.com/1205/starwarsbuns.asp

This is not so much funny, as just impressively well done - Kill Bill meets Star Wars:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QD9-tFTifY8


'George Lucas in Love', awarding winning short film. Not so short though, ten minutes... maybe one for a home, rather than the office. I'd hate to be the reason productivity in Luxembourg... ...well, probably...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SfthCXJnTyE


And finally, what would National George Lucas day be with a clip from the Mel Brook's film 'SpaceBalls':

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTAZgjelNbA&feature=related

One of my comedy favourite lines is in 'Space Balls':

'Will we meet again?'
'Perhaps, in Space Balls 2, the search for more money.'


That be that. May your weeks start well and with a relative lack of hassle or strive.